Road Warrior: North Jersey jitney drivers take risks with cellphones even after tragedy

By John Cichowski

The Record

Just days after a fatal crash allegedly caused by a cellphone-yakking minibus driver, other jitney drivers continued to press phones to their ears last week as they made their rounds through Bergen and Passaic counties.

“That was a terrible tragedy, but I only use my phone for dispatch,” a driver named Jose explained Wednesday after leaving me at the George Washington Bridge bus station. “They’re quick calls. Very quick. No big deal.”

Many of his peers agreed.

On several tours along Route 4 on Thursday with Staff Photographer Kevin Wexler, we often encountered jitney drivers with phones pinned to their ears: Edwin, who hugged his device all along Broadway in Paterson; Felix, who chatted for more than five minutes while negotiating the highway and side roads in Paramus; and Carlos, who managed to text and drive on our return trip to Paramus.

Federal law imposes fines as high as $2,750 if commercial drivers use hand-held devices in non-emergency situations during interstate travel. The fine under New Jersey motor vehicle law is $100 for all drivers, but a 2011 law made it a disorderly conduct offense that may result in a jail sentence and fines as high as $1,000.

Police seldom use that statute, however. And none of the passengers who filled the 25-seat buses uttered a single complaint.

“I just want to get to work as cheaply as possible,” one Manhattan-bound passenger told me.

Angelie Paredes of North Bergen wasn’t a passenger on a minibus when her life ended on Tuesday on a West New York sidewalk. Only 8 months old, she was being pushed in a stroller by her mother when a minibus driven by Idowu Daramola, 48, hit a lamppost that fell on the toddler and killed her. Police say Daramola, whose driving record includes several violations, was on a cellphone.

Although such deaths are rare, drivers and pedestrians in West New York and other Hudson County towns say erratic minibus driving isn’t. They’ve complained for years. The Sheriff’s Office coordinated an enforcement program with towns to crack down on violators in 2011, but the effort couldn’t be sustained.

“I think we’ll be trying something similar again very soon,” said Robert Antalos, West New York’s police director.

Commuters who drive to Manhattan on Routes 3 and 4 and on several local thoroughfares have made similar complaints.

“Each day I see the careless disregard of these drivers, especially along Anderson Avenue, Fort Lee Road and Palisade Avenue,” said Cliffside Park reader Don McKelvey, “and it’s getting worse.”

Government regulations divide oversight of minibuses among state and federal agencies, with interstate travel mainly the responsibility of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

“These are mostly small companies that hide behind federal regulations,” said Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, “but I doubt they meet all federal requirements. I say ban them from the road.”

Company executives for small firms, like the one identified by police as Daramola’s employer, Sphinx Transportation of Ridgefield, rarely submit to media interviews. But in the past, owners have insisted they have vastly improved minibus transportation since the 1980s, when some mom-and-pop operations put converted trucks and dilapidated buses on the road with little more than paint cans for seats. Attempts to improve operations are often blocked by state lawmakers whose low-income constituents rely on trips with cheap fares, Wisniewski said.

“But if you want to avoid tragedies, you have to provide the best service possible, and that costs money,” he added.

Curiously, the big, state-run NJ Transit, which generally generates fewer complaints, does not compete for passengers with small jitney companies. New Jersey’s chief bus transportation provider long ago recognized that it could not compete with the low-budget, marginally profitable service offered by small carriers, and doing so might mean raising prices for its traditional rail and bus operations to compensate.

But his New Jersey staff is small. Inspection programs, which are conducted with state police and the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, for example, are done semiannually. Officers respond to complaints, but they seldom ride buses to gather photographic evidence.

“Cellphone violations are especially hard to enforce,” Rotondo said. “We have to see it. It’s one of those things that require the cooperation of the public. He suggested that passengers report bus-driving complaints by accessing the agency’s “safer bus” app at fmcsa.dot.gov/safety-security/saferbus/saferbus.aspx.

“We just can’t do it alone,” he said. “We need help.”

Safety officials always emphasize public education. Cops, on the other hand, generally stress enforcement. But when apprised of the change in state law that allowed them to charge drivers using cellphones with disorderly persons offenses, police chiefs and municipal public safety officers said they were unaware of the two-year-old reform initiated by a former West New York assemblywoman.

Our suggestions: Use the statute, ride the buses and bring small cameras.

Road Warrior stops by here Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Email him at cichowski@northjersey.com.

A minibus driver named Felix using a cellphone Thursday while driving customers in Paramus

Riding to Paramus with a driver identified as Carlos. Drivers say they need cellphones to stay in touch with dispatchers.

Road Warrior: North Jersey jitney drivers take risks with cellphones even after tragedy

By John Cichowski

The Record

Just days after a fatal crash allegedly caused by a cellphone-yakking minibus driver, other jitney drivers continued to press phones to their ears last week as they made their rounds through Bergen and Passaic counties.

“That was a terrible tragedy, but I only use my phone for dispatch,” a driver named Jose explained Wednesday after leaving me at the George Washington Bridge bus station. “They’re quick calls. Very quick. No big deal.”

Many of his peers agreed.

On several tours along Route 4 on Thursday with Staff Photographer Kevin Wexler, we often encountered jitney drivers with phones pinned to their ears: Edwin, who hugged his device all along Broadway in Paterson; Felix, who chatted for more than five minutes while negotiating the highway and side roads in Paramus; and Carlos, who managed to text and drive on our return trip to Paramus.

Federal law imposes fines as high as $2,750 if commercial drivers use hand-held devices in non-emergency situations during interstate travel. The fine under New Jersey motor vehicle law is $100 for all drivers, but a 2011 law made it a disorderly conduct offense that may result in a jail sentence and fines as high as $1,000.

Police seldom use that statute, however. And none of the passengers who filled the 25-seat buses uttered a single complaint.

“I just want to get to work as cheaply as possible,” one Manhattan-bound passenger told me.

Angelie Paredes of North Bergen wasn’t a passenger on a minibus when her life ended on Tuesday on a West New York sidewalk. Only 8 months old, she was being pushed in a stroller by her mother when a minibus driven by Idowu Daramola, 48, hit a lamppost that fell on the toddler and killed her. Police say Daramola, whose driving record includes several violations, was on a cellphone.

Although such deaths are rare, drivers and pedestrians in West New York and other Hudson County towns say erratic minibus driving isn’t. They’ve complained for years. The Sheriff’s Office coordinated an enforcement program with towns to crack down on violators in 2011, but the effort couldn’t be sustained.

“I think we’ll be trying something similar again very soon,” said Robert Antalos, West New York’s police director.

Commuters who drive to Manhattan on Routes 3 and 4 and on several local thoroughfares have made similar complaints.

“Each day I see the careless disregard of these drivers, especially along Anderson Avenue, Fort Lee Road and Palisade Avenue,” said Cliffside Park reader Don McKelvey, “and it’s getting worse.”

Government regulations divide oversight of minibuses among state and federal agencies, with interstate travel mainly the responsibility of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

“These are mostly small companies that hide behind federal regulations,” said Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, “but I doubt they meet all federal requirements. I say ban them from the road.”

Company executives for small firms, like the one identified by police as Daramola’s employer, Sphinx Transportation of Ridgefield, rarely submit to media interviews. But in the past, owners have insisted they have vastly improved minibus transportation since the 1980s, when some mom-and-pop operations put converted trucks and dilapidated buses on the road with little more than paint cans for seats. Attempts to improve operations are often blocked by state lawmakers whose low-income constituents rely on trips with cheap fares, Wisniewski said.

“But if you want to avoid tragedies, you have to provide the best service possible, and that costs money,” he added.

Curiously, the big, state-run NJ Transit, which generally generates fewer complaints, does not compete for passengers with small jitney companies. New Jersey’s chief bus transportation provider long ago recognized that it could not compete with the low-budget, marginally profitable service offered by small carriers, and doing so might mean raising prices for its traditional rail and bus operations to compensate.

But his New Jersey staff is small. Inspection programs, which are conducted with state police and the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, for example, are done semiannually. Officers respond to complaints, but they seldom ride buses to gather photographic evidence.

“Cellphone violations are especially hard to enforce,” Rotondo said. “We have to see it. It’s one of those things that require the cooperation of the public. He suggested that passengers report bus-driving complaints by accessing the agency’s “safer bus” app at fmcsa.dot.gov/safety-security/saferbus/saferbus.aspx.

“We just can’t do it alone,” he said. “We need help.”

Safety officials always emphasize public education. Cops, on the other hand, generally stress enforcement. But when apprised of the change in state law that allowed them to charge drivers using cellphones with disorderly persons offenses, police chiefs and municipal public safety officers said they were unaware of the two-year-old reform initiated by a former West New York assemblywoman.

Our suggestions: Use the statute, ride the buses and bring small cameras.

Road Warrior stops by here Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Email him at cichowski@northjersey.com.